Moving a mobile home with pickup

I have an opportunity to make some money moving a mobile home. It's a 10x50 and needs to go 100 miles. Weight is estimated at 7500 lbs. It has a tongue and tires on it.

I was going to make a pigtail to connect to the brakes on the axles and use my magnetic lights with an extension for the tail lights. I have a one ton dually with proper tow equipment for this weight. I am required to have 750k liability insurance that I will get, and the proper permits and a route picked by the state. I called them to make sure it's all legal. It is.

Is there anything I am missing here? Should I pull the bearings and repack them before I move it? I have extra tires and wheels that I'll take with me.

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

Originally Posted by dirtyoldman

I have an opportunity to make some money moving a mobile home. It's a 10x50 and needs to go 100 miles. Weight is estimated at 7500 lbs. It has a tongue and tires on it.

I was going to make a pigtail to connect to the brakes on the axles and use my magnetic lights with an extension for the tail lights. I have a one ton dually with proper tow equipment for this weight. I am required to have 750k liability insurance that I will get, and the proper permits and a route picked by the state. I called them to make sure it's all legal. It is.

Is there anything I am missing here? Should I pull the bearings and repack them before I move it? I have extra tires and wheels that I'll take with me.

I have moved a larger one than that with my 06 F-350 but only 3.5 miles.

7,500# seems light. A 33' long camper I move every year that is only 8.5' wide weighs 11,000#. The MH I moved was twice that weight with noting in it.

Repack all the bearings. 100 miles is a long way. Check with your insurance company to make sure you are covered on over width stuff and when doing it for hire. I did it as a donation to a local church so there was no money changing hands.

The biggest issue I had was getting it into position at the new lot. It was wet. We needed 3 other 4x4 vehicles to drag it though the muck and mud as I backed it up.

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

How many axles does it have??

MH axles are typicaly 6500-7000lb rated. So If it has three axles, there is a good chance the weight is north of 13-14k. But if only two axles, It is probabally under that by a bit and you should be fine with you truck provided you have proper towing setup, which you say you do.

".........there is only one way to find out."
"Ok, hold my beer and watch this.........."

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

I would be real careful on this one.

I just had a Fema Mobile pulled into my place (12 X 35) that I originally thought I would pull in with my 1 ton. The guy I bought from suggested getting it moved by a towing service, and I thought their price reasonable for the risk $375 so went that way.

I had him drop it a bit short of where I needed it for a couple of reasons, figured I could easily spot it with my tractor, boy was I wrong. Tounge weight on that thing was probably up around 2500 lbs. 3pt would not lift it, farm jack would not lift it, finally 75 horse Skidsteer did the trick, but made me awfully glad I did not have that thing hooked to the back of my one ton running down the road.

Not sure what you are set up to handle bumper pull as far as weight, but might be worth taking a couple scales and a hydraulic jack and checking tongue weight before you commit.

If it is seriously off balance, it could make for a really long ride at best, and a bit dangerous at worst.

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

Its NOT the weight or the hitch load that will be a problem for you. It's the length and the axle spacing (as well as lousy tires. The yaw moment of inertia is very high and that will lead to some very high lateral loads on your truck hitch and rear tires. Good chance you will jackknife it if it gets swinging. Mobile home tires and wheels are notorius bad actors. The wheels take vertical loads OK but their soft lateral stiffness makes them a problem if you go fast around a curve. There'a reason that the Pros use a special truck which has the hitch very close to the rear axle AND dual rear tires.

100 miles is an eternity when you add it all up.

There is no "I" in team, but there is a "Me" if you want to jumble it up a bit...

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

Just saw a post on here the other day but couldn't find it

Just do like those friends in kentucky did hook a few different rigs up to the front and go. Might wanna put the front rig on a quick disconnect tho so you can unhook and run around to the rear for those downhill stretches.
Rick

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

Originally Posted by tungularafishcamp

Just saw a post on here the other day but couldn't find it

Just do like those friends in kentucky did hook a few different rigs up to the front and go. Might wanna put the front rig on a quick disconnect tho so you can unhook and run around to the rear for those downhill stretches.
Rick

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

Re: Moving a mobile home with pickup

Originally Posted by LD1

How many axles does it have??

MH axles are typicaly 6500-7000lb rated. So If it has three axles, there is a good chance the weight is north of 13-14k. But if only two axles, It is probabally under that by a bit and you should be fine with you truck provided you have proper towing setup, which you say you do.

I would be a little cautious about trying to estimate weight by counting axles. I've heard of MH home people over inflating the tires because they are overloaded. Because they don't plan on going very far the thought is the tire can handle it and if you notice they also carry lots of spares.